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THE GREAT WHITE FLEET
 

Reference books
on the
Great White Fleet

"Other nations may do what you have done, but they'll have to follow you."
Teddy Roosevelt
February 22, 1909

 What did Military History Magazine have to say?
 

The largest and
most diverse
collection of GWF items ever found!
Take a look.

When Jacl Comes March Home - Was a work that Henry Reuterdahl did for the  June 16, 1908 additionn of Colliers.  H had been with the fleet most of the way around the horne and knew they were going to be sending home load of souveniors when the reached the ports of California.

When Jack came hme he broughy with him the memoriable items of the ports and events of the cruise.  His ditty box was not large, but stowed property could contain an array of things to remember the highlights of his trip.  So sailors were fortunate to have a locker in their workstation that allowed for ceramics linens, larger photos and other items.  A third option was the sea-bag locker which was normally opened on the last day the ship was in port for sailors to put items here that would stay below to the end of the cruise.  

This portion of the site provides some of the most interesting material of my collection.  It contains medals and ribbons, books and booklets, unique items made especially for the sailors of the cruise. If a sailor brought back a souvenior that was not produced for the cruise, but was from the local culture, I have placed thoe items under mailcall and the invividual ports of call.  

In May of 1908 there
must have been thousands of these banners at every paradeg  and event celebrating the fleet.  This is just a simple 24" felt banner  that had been tied to a stick and well used totell the sailors of our nations pride.

 The Cruise Around the World

MY CRUISE AROUND THE WORLD
Seaman Bitting  got a great souvenir of the cruise.  With a couple of shipmate from the Missouri, listed bottom center on the poster, they had this poster made, customized to their journey. tIn the Lowerr left hand corner is the name M. F. Dohinos, Athes (Greece),  Missouri was one of the shis that visited Athens and this poster could have been completed by one of the local printing companies and artists  The images in the corner show Melbourne, San Francisco, Colombo and the Philippines.

 RULER OF THE MAIN
The framed certificate above is Seaman Bitting crossing-th-line certifcate, still together after all these years (I didn't want to separate them within the site.  Booth of these frames show a lot of wear and undoubtly ejoyed a prominent place in the hoiusehold for many year after the cruiise.

Drawing Book U.S. Battleships
Many of the souvenirs created were for children including the drawing book at left.  The booklet contains line images of each ship and a piece of tracing paper over each page so a child could copy the images.

visited, number of cruising days, number of coaling days and trarget practice.  They also showed the milage between ports, (althought is one is confused between knots and nautical miles), and the dates of each visit.  This one was completed for the USS Ohio's arrival in San Francisco.  These are similar to the holiday cards that were issued after visiting Jamica.  They are made of aluminum and are printed in black ink.

Souvenirs came in every form.  I can imagine that on the day of a parade there were vendors at every corner and items in every shop that had some element added to an old item or made specialy for the fleet's visit.  The shell at left was a nice little item with a fold out the 30-40 ships and a ribbon to hold it together.  And who could resist a "Fighting Bob" watch fob?  For the man who has everything!

AROUND THE WORLD WITH UNCLE SAM'S FLEET
The box above came with 100 stereographs showing "all the principal places visited" and was marketed as showing the 1908-09 cruise.  Though there are some stereographs from events of the cruise, the majority of items are from stock photographs that were available of sailors, ports and ships.  Many of the shipboard photographs are on the USS Kentucky while Robley Evans was captain.  In one view it shows Evans in his uniform of a Captain, by the caption reads Admiral Evans!